


the lull of movement between waves

by Serie11



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dreameaters (Kingdom Hearts) - Freeform, Established Relationship, Multi, Peace, Post-Kingdom Hearts III, SoRiKai Week 2020, Sora Lives (Kingdom Hearts), Tattoos, Trans Character, Trans Riku (Kingdom Hearts)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:48:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25722355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serie11/pseuds/Serie11
Summary: The first time Kairi sees Riku’s Dreameater mark, it’s a mistake.Sorikai week day 2:Soulmates|Peace
Relationships: Kairi/Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 41
Collections: Sorikai Week





	the lull of movement between waves

The first time Kairi sees Riku’s Dreameater mark, it’s a mistake. 

She and Sora had been messing about in the kitchen, debating what they would cook after their long swim that afternoon. Riku had still been getting changed upstairs, but Kairi had gone up to ask his opinion on the matter, only to knock on her door and only receive silence as a reply. 

“Riku?” she asks again, a curl of worry starting up. He hasn’t drowned in the shower or something, right?

“I’m fine,” he says, slightly muffled. 

“Can I come in?” 

Silence again. She slowly pushes her door open, waiting to see if he’ll ask for her to leave. What she sees is not what she was expecting. Riku is stuck, arms awkwardly pinned, with a binder half on. 

“Kairi,” he sighs. “Can you please help me out of this.”

She resists the urge to laugh, pursing her lips together tightly. “How did this happen?” 

Riku is quiet for a second as she approaches. “I took this from my room, but it’s been a few years since I was there.”

“Riku,” she chastises him. “You’ve grown a lot since you left the islands, you know.”

“I’m realising that _now_ ,” he mutters. 

“You and your ridiculous height,” she clucks. “Turn around.” No reason to have him half naked in front of her when he’s already self-conscious enough about his body. 

Riku doesn’t move, staring at her. She lifts an eyebrow. “Unless you want me to–”

Riku clears his throat. “Right. Just,” he hesitates, then turns. 

It’s immediately clear why he hadn’t wanted to bear his back. Even tangled up with his binder, she can see the brightly coloured mark that stretches from his shoulder blades to the small of his back. She reaches out as if to touch it, and then makes herself grab his binder instead, helping him pull it over his head. Riku folds his arms in front of him and doesn’t look at her. 

“Can I?” Kairi asks quietly. 

“Sure,” Riku says, swallowing. 

She lays a hand against the mark gently, but his skin is just warm. There’s nothing to differentiate it by touch when compared to the skin around the mark. She presses both her palms on his back and stands on her toes to press a kiss against the back of his neck. She can make it if she really tries. Riku shivers slightly under her touch.

“When did this happen?” 

“It’s my Dreameater mark,” Riku admits. “I got it when I was protecting Sora in the Realm of Sleep. I didn’t realise immediately after we woke up, but it just… never went away.” 

She traces the arc of it, how the lines sweep together elegantly. The colours are lovely – if anyone saw it, it could be taken for a tattoo. “Does it mean anything?” 

“I don’t know,” Riku admits. “I told Mickey about it, and he promised me he’d look into it. It might just be a remnant from the dreams. I don’t think it means anything bad.” 

She dearly wishes that it doesn’t. After everything they’ve been through, the last thing she wants is more drama for any of them, especially something that Riku has gained because he was protecting Sora. They deserve a measure of peace.

“I should have a bra that will fit you,” she says instead of telling him that she’s scared, all of a sudden. Riku is quiet as she rummages through her closet, trying to see if she has something smaller that she used to wear that might fit Riku, at least until he can return to his house and find something better. When she turns back to him, he’s sitting on the edge of her bed, head bowed. 

“Here,” she says, throwing the bra his way. “That should be better than nothing. Don’t say I never do anything for you.” 

“I would never say something like that,” Riku protests, even as Kairi slaps his shoulder gently. 

“Hush,” she tells him. “Now get changed. We need to go downstairs and stop whatever culinary disaster Sora has brewing in the kitchen.” 

“You know, he’s actually good at cooking now,” Riku reminds her. “He’s gotten a _lot_ better than how he was when we were kids. Little Chef has been teaching him whenever he goes to Twilight Town.” 

“Well then he’d better be making something amazing,” Kairi tells him, finding his shirt among the other clothes on the ground. She bundles up the rest of his swimwear from her bathroom, and takes it to the laundry where she shoves it all into the washing machine with her and Sora’s swimwear. 

Riku is waiting in the hallway, dressed again, when she emerges. He halts her as she goes past him, and she stops, looking up at him.

“It’s okay,” he says quietly.

“Hm?”

“I can tell when you’re freaking out,” he says, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. Kairi leans into the familiar action. “And you don’t have to. Look at my eyes.” He leans down slightly, and she looks into his eyes. They’re the same light blue as always, kind and deep. There are few sights she loves more.

“They look like normal?” she says, her voice lilting up at the end to make a question even though she doesn’t want it to be.

“Exactly,” Riku says. “Dreameaters have different eyes. Mine are still normal, and I don’t have any of my Dreameater powers any more.”

“Then why is there a giant Dreameater sigil on your back?” Kairi bursts out. “I just… I don’t want things to go crazy again. I think I’ve had enough adventure for a lifetime.”

Riku huffs out a laugh. “Yeah. Me too.” He looks at her for a second, and she grips the front of his shirt anxiously. “The things that we went through left their marks on us. Sometimes literally. This is one of those.”

“I know that the two of you have gone through things that you don’t talk about,” Kairi says, staring at his chest so she won’t have to look at his face. “But I wish you did. Does Sora know about it?”

Riku swallows. “Yeah,” he admits. “I can still feel his dreams – just a little!” he says, when Kairi looks up at him sharply. “I can’t do anything about it, not like I did in the realm of sleep. When I talked to Sora about it, he asked me if there was anything different for me, and I showed him.”

Kairi lets out a soft sigh. “At least you told someone,” she says. “If you don’t want to talk to me, then you should talk to Sora.”

“I’m sorry,” Riku apologises. “I didn’t mean to keep it from you.”

“Hush,” she says, wrapping her arms around him. He’s warm and steady, and she lets herself lean against him for a moment. “If there’s anything else, you can tell me about it, you know.”

“I know,” Riku says. His palms come up to rest flat on her back. “We’re still getting used to this.”

“Not having anything to fight?” Kairi asks wryly. “Being at peace?”

“Something like that,” Riku acknowledges.

“Practice makes perfect,” Kairi muses. Riku nods. She links her arm in his, and they walk down to the kitchen together, where she can hear Sora singing to himself as he clatters around. 

Riku is right – Sora’s meal _is_ delicious. She tells him that, and Sora teases her about how he’s now the best cook out of all of them. Kairi willingly gives the spot to him if it means that he’ll make more delicious food for her in the future. Under the table, their feet brush up against each other, and Kairi lets the normality of it sink into her heart.

Riku isn’t the only one who’s getting used to how things are now, but she’s determined to make every moment of it count.


End file.
